U.S. soybeans up over 3% intraday at 1,170.50 cents per bushel.

Sources say Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) system will be permitted to invest in more gold ETFs as part of the Hong Kong government’s plan to build a regional gold trading centre. The MPFA is expected to amend gold ETF investment rules later this week. MPFA-regulated MPF assets were about HKD1.53 tln (USD195bn) at end-March. Currently the MPFA approves gold ETFs on a case-by-case basis; the proposed change would make ETFs that meet prescribed standards automatically eligible, removing the need for individual approvals. The move is intended to expand choices for roughly 4.8 million MPF members. Risk controls would remain: gold ETFs would be barred from using derivative leverage and the MPF allocation cap to gold ETFs would stay at 10%.

The Russian Defence Ministry said early on the 6th Russian forces launched a large-scale strike using air-, land- and sea-launched long-range precision weapons and attack drones, striking military-industrial facilities and fuel-energy sites in Kyiv city and Kyiv region, and military airfield infrastructure in Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions. The ministry said the strikes were carried out in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.